Current State Statutes now online

Most of us look online for state statutes anyway.  Now it is official - to get the current statutes for states*, you should look either on Lexis Advance, Westlaw Next, Bloomberg Law or the web.

On the web, you can find links to all of the states' statutes at http://statelaws.findlaw.com/state-codes.html .   For states that provide their authenticated official code, see the web site for the states that have adopted the Uniform Electronic Legal Materials Act.  

*The Library still has current state statutes in print for NY, NJ, FL, TX and CA . 

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Texas, A Major Presence in the Legal News

The State of Texas is much in the legal news these past couple of days, with mixed results for its legislature.

On the one hand, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reinstated Texas’s voter ID law. Read more here.

On the other hand, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a Texas law that would have forced several abortion clinics to close. Read more about that ruling here.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Congress.gov Moves Out of Beta!

"Congress.gov has been moved out of its beta testing status two years after its debut as the federal government’s free legislative information site. With the move, several new features have been added to the site, including:

• Congress.gov Resources, a section with an expanded list of “most viewed” bills each day and an alphabetical listing of hundreds of links related to Congress.
• Live video streams of House Committee hearings and meetings, with an archive to January, 2012.
• Improved advanced search with 30 new fields including nominations, Congressional Record and name of member as well as the ability to browse a calendar of days in session, roll call votes and bills by sponsor and co-sponsors."

Hat tip GNCtech
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Chronicling America

Chronicling America:  Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.

Easy to use you can limit by state and date.  Newspapers are a great source for understanding the issues of a particular time and peoples response.   Review these older sources and you might discover that many of the same issues are topical today.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Online Sources: Kluwer Arbitration

If you are looking for an online resource for international commercial arbitration research, try Kluwer Arbitration. It includes case law, commentary, journals, conventions, awards, practice tools, news, blogs, legislation, rules and more. 

To access the Kluwer Arbitration:

• Go to the Library's home page, click "Online Resources"
• Click the "Alternative Dispute Resolution / Mediation" link
• Scroll down to "Kluwer Arbitration"

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat